In this work, we investigate the problem of control for nonlinear systems represented by Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy models affected by both sensor and actuator faults subject to an unknown bounded disturbances (UBD). For this, we design an adaptive observer to estimate state, sensor and actuator fault vectors simultaneously despite the presence of external disturbances. Based on this observer, we develop a fault tolerant control (FTC) law not only to stabilize closed loop system, but also to compensate the fault effects. For the observer-based controller design, we propose less conservative conditions formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Moreover, both observer and controller gains are calculated via solving a set of LMIs only in single step. Finally, comparative results and an application to single-link flexible joint robot are afforded to prove the efficiency of the proposed design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]